Friday, January 5, 2007

So I'm back and up, mostly, for writing again. I'm sorry for the complete drop off the radar, but the Holiday Season takes everything out of me. This year I thought it'd be better than usual. But like life (and Murphy's Law) the minute I thought that, everything became more stressful in some fashion or other. In this case, I lost a dear friend not too soon after the last post I did in December and then another friend's mother died and so I was dealing with more than usual.

But it's 2007. Everyone I loved who died last year is hopefully in a better place or somehow at peace. And I'm still alive and kicking (despite the more than occasional prod-throb of pain. I got Runaways for presents! Along with something by Alan Moore (hmmm Alannnesss) And I bought myself Kung Fu Hustle (which will have it's own blog entry (soon I hope) on how I realized the super hero comic themes in Kung Fu movies - at least as produced by Stephen Chow).

I'm catching up on blog entries I missed. I know I saw something about Wolverine and what sucks by 4th Letter and I have my own notes on 'Why James Howlett Sucks Big Time'. I also have a couple interesting thoughts on what Jeff Lindsay's (now on SHOWTIME) Dexter Morgan series would be like as a comic. And I'm watching Afro Samurai on SpikeTv.

On top of that all, I got hooked on BLEACH the anime series on the 29th-30th of December '06 and I've been combing my local library system (which has a far greater manga catalogue than I ever suspected) for bound issues. I'm pleased and surprised to realize the anime series kept so close to the manga that I could essentially just pick up starting from the end of Volume 6 and be on track. Of course I re-read the whole thing and realized that the anime has some slight reformatting of certain slighter storylines. But still. I'm pleased to be able to feed my fix ;p

BLEACH and 'Kung Fu Hustle' kicked off something in me and I've hunted down CardCaptor Sakura, I've put Inuyasha in my Netflix queue (Yay for holiday treating!) and I'm checking to see how many volumes my library has of that as well. I've been realizing, with much laughter, however, that my super hero love continues even in my manga likes and dislikes. Broody hero who's trying to protect individuals in the world from similar pain? Yay BLEACH meet Batman. Spunky girl working to make up for a mistake and who grows with each challenge? Hullooooo CardCaptor Sakura meet what I wished SUPERGIRL would be.

And Lone Wolf & Cub is likely to tweak every Kung Fu kink I never knew I had. But then again, lonely Samurai echoes with what I do like about Wolverine. And omg whee there's more by Kazuo Koike like: Lady Snow Blood and Samurai Executioner and The Path of the Assassin. I hope to be happy as a pig in mud for the first few months of 2007 - at least as far as graphic novel reading material goes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR (everyone who celebrates it in January instead of Feb or September!)

Oh and for the record? I have nothing good to say whatsoever about Laurell K Hamilton's "Guilty Pleasure's" comic. I'm not reading it. The scans I see of it make me cringe muscles that really prefer not to be excersised.